Heritage
Born in Modena.
Raised on V8 thunder.
The Pantera is one of the great crossover stories in car history — and the reason our colours look the way they do.
Buenos Aires
Alejandro de Tomaso is born in Argentina. He races there before moving to Italy in the 1950s.
De Tomaso Automobili, Modena
He founds his own company in Italy's motor valley, building racing cars and, soon, road cars.
The Pantera is revealed
American designer Tom Tjaarda shapes the wedge at Ghia. Steel unit body, mid-mounted engine, pop-up headlights.
Ford brings it to America
A Ford 351 Cleveland V8 and ZF transaxle — and Lincoln-Mercury dealers selling an Italian exotic.
Evolution
L, GTS, GT5 and GT5-S variants follow, with wider flares, spoilers and more aggressive looks, before production ends in the early 1990s.
Survivors need steel
Roughly 7,000 cars were built. Rust, accidents and time have made sound body panels almost impossible to find.
Who we are
Why Auto Upfitters makes Pantera panels
We're builders first. Every Pantera restorer runs into the same wall: the front fenders are rotten, the headlight buckets are tired, and good replacements are hard to find. So we decided to manufacture them.
We're starting with the panels that fail first — front fenders, fender tops and pop-up headlight buckets — with the first production run planned for early 2027. Rear quarters, roof, hood, engine lid, tail panel and bumpers are next, in the order our customers ask for them.
